Quote of the Day: How Naturalism and Postmodernism Strip Meaning from the World

“Western culture is pervaded with scientific naturalism and with postmodernism. The first of these strips the world of spirit, the other of knowledge. Both take away the hope of ultimate, transcendent meaning. Naturalism denies there is anything more to life than what we can touch and see, and postmodernism says there is almost nothing beyond ourselves that we can truly know.”

—Tom Gilson, in his review of J.P. Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle, available at http://www.thinkingchristian.net/C2031585454/E20070625223226/

 

Quote of the Day: When Not to Use "Cult"

“Look, I don’t think that it’s useful to bring up Mormonism as a cult in the political discussion. It’s not relevant to Romney’s candidacy and most people misunderstand what we mean by ‘cult.’ There are two definitions – a sociological one that involves brainwashing and coercion, and a theological one that examines doctrine. Average people think of the former and misunderstand the point.”—Melinda Penner

 

Quote of the Day: Can the Location of One’s Feet Give Them Value?

From the editors of National Review Online:

 

“Partial-birth abortions are not really worse than other methods of late-term abortion. There is indeed something irrational about concluding that a method [I would add ‘the morality’] of killing a seven-month-old fetus should depend on the location of his foot. But just who is responsible for making a fetish of location in the first place? It is the Supreme Court itself that has declared — with no support in the Constitution — that what distinguishes a fetus with no claim to legal protection from an infant with such a claim is whether it is in the womb.”<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[1]<!–[endif]–>

<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>

---

<!–[endif]–>

<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[1]<!–[endif]–>National Review editors, “Partial Victory”; available from http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzMxZWQ0ZGM1NjdjYmZlZDBiYjRlMDc3NzAxOGU2M2Y; Internet; accessed 19 April 2007.

 

Quote of the day

Daniel Wallace ended his series on the history of the English Bible in the following manner:

Even with the proliferation of Bibles today, Christians are reading their Bibles less and less. I believe the evangelical church has only 50 years of life left…because of marginalization of the Word of God. We need another Reformation! The enemy of the gospel now is not religious hierarchy but moral anarchy, not tradition but entertainment. The enemy of the gospel is Protestantism run amock; it is an anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge, feel-good faith that has no content and no convictions. Part of the communal repentance that is needed is a repentance about the text. And even more importantly, there must be a repentance with regard to Christ our Lord. Just as the Bible has been marginalized, Jesus Christ has been ‘buddy-ized.’ His transcendence and majesty are only winked at, as we turn him into the genie in the bottle, beseeching God for more conveniences, more luxury, less hassle, and a life without worries or lack of comfort. He no longer wears the face that the apostles recognized. … The God we worship today no longer resembles the God of the Bible. Unless we return to him through a reading and digesting of the scriptures—through a commitment to the text, the evangelical church will become irrelevant, useless, dead.

I wholeheartedly concur.

I would also suggest you read his presentation (beginning here). It is an extremely informative history that I found fascinating. Few are better equipped to deal with this issue like Wallace.

 

 

Quotes of the Day

Barry A (from William Dembski’s blog) wrote:

 

Many people say Darwinism is a scientific theory, and as such does not speak to morality or ethics. Strictly speaking, this is true, but like ID, Darwinism also has profound implications for morality and ethics. It is not for nothing that Dawkins said Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. And as Nietzsche was honest enough to admit, an atheist is compelled to say that morality, ethics and justice are illusions. The only thing that exists is a brutal competition of wills. There is no right and wrong. There is only strong and weak. The 20th century was one long bloody lesson in the practical application of Nietzsche’s ideas.

We must always be very careful to distinguish between our science and our metaphysics. ID is science and Darwinism is science. Neither ID nor Darwinism addresses morality, ethics or justice, but both have implications for these matters. ID is consistent with my hope that a loving God exists Who has established a transcendent moral order. Darwinism is consistent with atheism, which in turn is inconsistent with the very idea of objective morality.

“Salvation obtains when accurate knowledge is combined with active trust.”—Greg Koukl, “Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be”

 

Quotes of the Day

1. “There is no reason why debates in ivory towers should not also take place at water coolers.”—Darrel Bock, Breaking the Da Vinci Code, 158

“There is a difference between an argument and a sophisticated assertion.”—Greg Koukl

 

Who Should Fear Whom?

Quote of the day:

Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear government, that’s tyranny; when the government fears the people, that’s liberty.”

 

Quote of the Day: Spiritual Abuse

“A hallmark of spiritual abuse is treating the person who dares to point out a problem as the problem.”

—Roger Olson, “Pentecostalism’s Dark Side” http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1871

 

What’s Wrong With Modernity and Postmodernity

 

Quote of the day:

 

“What I didn’t care for about modernism was its tendency toward dogmatism; what I don’t care for about postmodernism is its tendency toward skepticism. I think we’ve jumped out of the frying pan of modernist certainty and into the fire of postmodern uncertainty.”—Dan Wallace

 

 

No Fill-in-the-Blank-God

Quote of the day:

 

“The concept of God is general and benign–no real threat. But if you talk about Jesus, sparks fly. Jesus is God with a face, not the fill-in-the-blank variety we conform to our own tastes. He can’t be twisted and distorted and stuffed in our back pocket. And that bothers people. If God is silent, it’s anyone’s game. We can speculate all we want and think what we like. But if God speaks, then our opinions don’t matter. He’s the authority on what He’s like and what He wants. We have to take Him as He is, shy brunette or fiery redhead, on His terms not ours.”–Greg Koukl